"They go from strength to strength."
--Psalm 84:7
They go from strength to strength. There are various
renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of
progress.
Our own good translation of the authorized version is enough
for us this morning. "They go from strength to strength." That
is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking,
we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good
order for our journey, but by-and-by the road is rough, and the
sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully
pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having obtained
fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome
travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be
quite so elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty
in his zeal as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that
constitutes real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more
surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their
grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing it, as they were in
their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often
otherwise, for the love of many waxes cold and iniquity abounds,
but this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise which
still holds good: "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and
not faint." Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves
about the future. "Alas!" say they, "we go from affliction to
affliction." Very true, O thou of little faith, but then thou
goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt never find a
bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it
sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood
with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.
|